Groove Armada are legends of dance and electronic music.

Tom Findlay and Andy Cato make up the duo – and have been pumping out tracks for over a quarter of a century, building a reputation as one of the best.

They’ve captured the magic... they’ve reached iconic status... they’ve had to cancel gigs because they were scared too many people would turn up.

And they’re coming back to New Zealand to round off our summer with a bang.

The pair are set to play at Auckland Domain next weekend before heading down to Queenstown, Christchurch and Wellington.

LISTEN ABOVE.

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Hagley Park plays host now to the biggest two-day festival in all of Australasia, Electric Ave, and entertainment reporter Chris Schultz is there live.

"It really is something, the city is maxed out - you can't get accommodation, there's queues for food places all over town. Its that busy down here."

LISTEN ABOVE.

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Jackie – Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli

About first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The book includes a number of details about Kennedy's private life that had not previously been made public.

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words? If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn't you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words-Let Them-will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you. The Let Them Theory puts the power to create a life you love back in your hands.

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Lots of panic questions about Monarchs this year: in Auckland they are recorded as “pretty rare”, whereas in Christchurch I see them quite regularly and they’re doing fine in my garden.

There are always some troubles with wasps. These predators are quite keen to chew the monarch caterpillars to pieces and take the protein back to the wasp nest as food for their larvae.

It sounds awful and it looks awful; the common-German wasps (and Paper wasps) are, after all, imported pests that don’t belong here.

Keep your plants with caterpillars under netting; the wasps can not access them. Another trick is to grow your swan plants in large pots, which can be moved to new sites when wasps discover the precious cargo; the wasp’s GPS system is disrupted when you change the position of the swan plants.

Running out of food is often bad news – caterpillars starving

Always keep an extra plant or two under curtain netting, so female monarchs can’t lay eggs on those spare food plants!!

It also pays to reduce the number of eggs/caterpillars per plant (birth-control)

I must confess: I had some trouble managing the number of caterpillars this year: they we sometimes eating the tops of the naked swanplants… and in pairs!!

I tend to keep my caterpillars inside the tunnel house, so that the female monarchs couldn’t get at them to lay more and more eggs

“Go Fly to Auckland and Do something with your Life” is what I usually say…

Sometimes caterpillars are found limp and dying

This is often caused by predation by brown soldier bugs (Cermatulus nasalis) who stick their sucking tubes into the caterpillars and slowly such them dry.

Look for the soldier bugs (brown version of the garden stink bug!!) and get rid of them!

Accidents do happen, especially when the last instar caterpillar does its very last change from Caterpillar to Chrysalis.

That in itself is a tricky manoeuvre: the caterpillar hangs from a small patch of silk while it takes its skin of. The trick is then to hook its chrysalis “claws” into the same white silken pad, so it can hang there as long as it takes to change into an adult butterfly.

There are a few videos that capture the way a caterpillar becomes a chrysalis; have a look at how the caterpillar manages that without falling.

But sometimes things go horribly wrong and if you discover a fallen chrysalis soon after the accident happened, you can carefully pick that very fragile creature up and literally hang it back where it needs to be…

Very delicate “First Aid”

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Things You Didn’t Know You Can Compost

Composting isn’t just for fruit and veggie scraps. There are plenty of surprising household items that can break down naturally and keep waste out of landfill.

• Pet Hair & Human Hair – Full of nitrogen, hair helps balance your compost pile.

• Nail Clippings – As long as they’re free from polish.

• Cardboard Toilet Rolls & Egg Cartons – A great source of carbon (browns) for your compost bin (most people don't put enough browns/carbon into their compost and it gets stinky, so this is a great accessible one)

• Natural Wine Corks – Chop them up for faster breakdown. (Avoid plastic-based ones!)

• Used Paper Towels & Napkins – As long as they’re not soaked in chemicals or grease.

• Coffee Grounds & Tea Bags – Tea bags must be plastic-free (many contain microplastics).

• Wooden Toothpicks & Bamboo Skewers – Break them into smaller pieces for easier decomposition.

• Old Cotton & Wool Socks – Only 100% natural fibres (no synthetics or elastane- unless the elastane is plant based, which is quite rare).

• Dead Houseplants & Cut Flowers – If they haven’t been treated with pesticides.

• Pencil Shavings & Uncoated Paper Scraps – A good source of carbon-rich material.

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A sprained ankle, one of the most common injuries seen at practice.

What is a sprained ankle?

• Injury that occurs when you roll, twist or turn your ankle in an awkward way.
• Commonest injury when the sole of foot turned inwards – called an inversion injury – damages outside of ankle.
• The injury strains or tears the ligaments that help hold and stabilise the joint.

What are the risks of a sprained ankle and main symptoms?

• Obvious risk is playing sport – rugby soccer where the ankle ‘rolls’
• Uneven surfaces, being unfit, improper shoes causing you to fall, landing awkwardly after jump, higher risk if previous sprained ankle. .
• Main symptom one: immediate pain after roll the ankle, difficulty walking swelling and painful to touch.
• Bruising and restricted movement of the ankle, popping sound, sensation when the injury occurs.

How do we teat them?

Immediate treatment:

• Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.
• Pain relief with things such as paracetamol.

If not settled in 48 hours see your doctor to:

• Examine the ankle, may order x-ray to make sure not broken.
• Get physio involved to start exercise program to get the ankle back to normal.
• May take up to 6 weeks to heal.
• In severe cases : may use a ‘moon boot’ or walking boot to immobilise the ankle till swelling goes down.

How do we prevent them?

• Warm up before sports ankle support if previously injured.
• Good fitting shoes important ( high heels a risk!)
• Stay fit, practice balance exercises.

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